ROCHESTER — In mid-February, Gov. Maggie Hassan delivered her budget speech to a joint session of the House and Senate in Concord. Now, as the budget is taken up by the legislature, she has taken her show on the road, extolling audiences to contact their elected representatives and push for the aspects she considers essential.

On Friday, she addressed a capacity crowd of Tri-City Chambers members at Frisbie Memorial Hospital's conference center, and started out with exactly the same words as two months previously — “New Hampshire stands at the threshold of a bright new future …. We cannot sit back and wait for the innovation economy to develop. We must lead the way.”

She then went on to recap her earlier themes of economic innovation, affordable higher education and sustaining New Hampshire's high quality of life by keeping people safe and healthy.

“In preparing this budget, we cut agency budget requests by more than 500 million general fund dollars, keeping general fund spending seven percent below fiscal year 2008 for fiscal year 2014,” said Hassan. “At the same time, our budget includes only 2 percent baseline revenue growth in the first year of the biennium and 1.9 percent in the second.”

She then talked of the high cost of secondary education, which is essential to have a highly trained workforce.

She gave as an example of cooperation between business and higher education, the partnership between Great Bay Community College and Albany/Safran in Rochester, which, she said, is helping to attract a high-tech manufacturer to the city, “where they will create 400 or more good jobs.”

With students facing one of the highest in-state tuition rates for public universities in the country, Hassan was told by a Londonderry woman that her daughter went to UMass Lowell because Massachusetts' out-of-state tuition is lower than New Hampshire's in-state tuition.

Saying this was not acceptable, Hassan said her budget substantially restores the cuts made to the state's community college and university systems. The University System will receive an increase of $20 million in fiscal year '14 with an additional increase of $15 million in fiscal year '15, bringing the system back to 90 percent of where it was before the cuts, she said adding that the budget fully restored funding for the Community College System in the first year, and added $3 million in the second.

In exchange, said Hassan, tuition costs will be frozen for the next two years.

With growing economic sectors like clean energy, biotech and IT, said Hassan, her budget has doubled the research and development tax credit and funded the state's International Trade Office to provide businesses with the technical support they need to compete.

The governor then talked of the state's deteriorating infrastructure of roads and bridges, and, without mentioning a proposed gas tax hike as a source of revenue to address the problem, said she was “working to find consensus.”

She then switched to quality of life issues, and spoke in favor of the federal Affordable Health Care Act, which will give the state $2.5 billion in Medicaid funds, create an estimated 700 jobs and save residents over $92 million, she said.

“The federal government will provide 100 percent of the funding for the first three years and no less than 90 percent thereafter, and the federal government has historically fulfilled its commitments to the Medicaid program,” she said, reiterating her earlier speech, word for word.

She then talked of how substance abusers and the mentally ill would be helped by moving to more community-based care. At present, she, said, between two and four dozen patients go to hospital emergency rooms every day with critical mental health issues, such as contemplated suicide.

The loss of funding for the Children in Need of Services program was “devastating” said Hassan, noting that her budget “begins to restore this program.”

Saying that public safety “is government's most important responsibility” Hassan said her budget seeks to put 15 more state troopers on the road to help redress the 30 who were cut previously, so we need to make sure we maintain the basic public safety infrastructure that allows local officials to keep us safe. Over the last few years, we have taken 30 state troopers off of our roads and out of our communities. People in our most rural areas should not have to wait more than an hour for the nearest state trooper to arrive.

“The Land and Community Heritage Investment Program has been so important for protecting our natural, historical and cultural resources, a responsibility that has not been met in recent years,” said Hassan, quoting from her prepared speech. “That's why this budget restores $1 million for LCHIP in the first year of the biennium, and fully restores the program in the second.”

She pointed out that Massachusetts was moving forward with three casinos, and could take New Hampshire's revenue, and leave this state with the social costs

A high-end casino would create 2,000 construction jobs during construction and 1,000 long-term jobs thereafter, she said. Hassan said that a recent poll conducted by UNH showed that almost two-thirds of New Hampshire residents favored a casino in the state.

She then revisited the poor condition of many of New Hampshire's bridges, putting public safety and the economy at risk.

“We can't let our economy fall behind. We have difficult choices with the budget, but it will drive innovation and the economy and will keep our people safe, healthy and productive,” said Hassan, adding that she wanted all residents to enjoy the state's success.

She said that the Founding Fathers' ideas were revolutionary, and the notion that ordinary people could govern themselves was considered crazy and arrogant. She recommended people read the biographies of America's early leaders.

“We can show the world our forefathers were absolutely right. It means no one can beat us economically. We just need to invest in critical things to move us forward, in the best state in the best country in the world,” said the governor.